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Radio And Production
March 2009
March 2009 Highlights
2008 RAP Awards:
R.A.P. Members Vote This Month!
The 19th Annual Radio And
Production Awards finalists appear on
this month's RAP CD, complete with a ballot, and RAP
members around the world now have the privilege of
casting their votes to select this year’s best.
Find out who made it to the
finals here.
Feature: A Quick Guide to Radio Creativity - Number One:
Know Your Surroundings
by Dan McCurdy
I don’t play computer games. When I did try the experience
once, no matter which buttons I pressed and no matter which
order I pressed them in, I couldn’t get past the first level.
Nobody generally likes failure, and I’m no exception. I like it
even less when I’m reminded of that possibility, and that I can
easily fail, or have just experienced failure again on a
constant basis. For this and many other reasons I soon stopped
gaming -- never became a gamer and have no desire to ever become
one. I have no objection of course if the rest of the world
busies itself in this pursuit. Leave me out of that particular
conversation and I’ll be quite happy. I have other things to do,
and life’s too short for chess.
Interview:
Russ Cimber, Director of Production,
KIRO-AM/FM, KTTH-AM, Seattle, WA
by Jerry Vigil
If there’s one thing there’s no shortage of these days, it’s
articles about bad times in radio, company stocks in the toilet,
layoffs, the “end of radio as we know it” -- which has more to
do with competing sources of entertainment than the economic
status of the world. Perhaps now, more than ever, radio should
take a second look at their production department, not in terms
of “who can we get rid of,” but in terms of how that department
can be utilized to grow revenue. The economic crisis is not only
bad for radio; it’s bad for our advertisers. Maybe what they
need more from radio is not a salesperson who will slash rates
further than the last guy knocking on the door, but radio that
comes to them with a more solid approach to making money, to
bringing customers to the door. We’ve heard this story before:
produce creative commercials that really work for the client.
But maybe it’s time this becomes the standard, rather than the
exception. Russ Cimber, Director of Production for Bonneville’s
Seattle cluster of three stations, including the market’s
current #1 station, is an example of the kind of individual that
stations might want to start considering as a “must have” member
of the team. The days of taking advertiser’s dollars and
throwing “last minute” rip-and-read ads on the air may be over.
The power of radio advertising is no less than it was 10 years
ago, but the need to focus that power is greater than ever. This
month’s RAP Interview with two-time Mercury Award winner Russ
Cimber focuses on just how that power can be harnessed.
Due to the RAP Awards finalists on this month’s CD,
click here to listen to a sample of commercial work from Russ.
Test Drive:
Source Elements Desktop and Source-Connect (The end of ISDN?)
by Steve Cunningham
I’ve had ISDN courtesy of AT&T and Telos for nearly ten years
now. Once I’d paid for the codec (which was about $2000 used,
but paid for itself in year one), there was still the monthly
phone line charges. In my neighborhood that’s about $36 every
month, or roughly $440 every year. In these times of
belt-tightening, it’s hard not to look at that monthly bill and
wonder when I can finally pull the plug. These days I do just
enough business via ISDN to pay for the line, which is either
fortunate or unfortunate, depending on how you look at things. I
continue to look for ways to circumvent the entire ISDN thing,
and while there are a few technologies that promise to replace
it, nobody has gotten it right so far. I’ve had high hopes for
VOIP (voice over internet protocol) boxes like Skype and the
so-called MagicJack USB plug for your computer. But while they
sound remarkably good when replacing regular phone calls, they
still have artifacts and dropouts that make them unsuitable for
high-quality remote recording (see the Sidebar). Source Elements
has been creating products to deal with these issues since 2004.
Founded by a couple of engineers from the postproduction side of
things, their products are finally gaining significant traction
for voiceover remotes. The original Source-Connect product was a
Pro Tools-only plug-in that required talent to record into a
digital editor. Recently, they’ve release Source Elements
Desktop, a version of the program that allows talent to fire up
a simple application with a single window, and have their voice
recorded in high-quality to a session anywhere else in the
world.
Production 212:
I’m As Mad As Hell And I’m Not Gonna Take It Any More!
by Dave Foxx
As I’m sure you all know, my company went through a
particularly wrenching reduction in work force a few weeks ago.
Just here in the NYC plant, I lost 89 friends. While cutbacks
are always painful, they almost always result in culling away
any dead wood, eliminating some people who really don’t belong
in this business in the first place. However, inevitably some
very talented people end up on the beach. One reason I have
never migrated to program management is the need to, on
occasion, let people go. I’m just not cut out to deliver that
kind of devastation to anyone, particularly to people I would
have probably hired in the first place.
Radio Hed:
Educate Your Prospect
by Jeffrey Hedquist
If you create commercials that help your prospects by making
them more knowledgeable, healthier, or saving them money,
they’ll be grateful. They’ll remember you. It’s because you used
the law of reciprocity and gave them something. You didn’t just
sell them. This approach positions you as the expert. Here’s
how…
Q It Up:
The RAP Network Speaks -
How would you equip a $3000 home studio?
Q It Up: Money is tight, but
you need to put together a home studio for voiceovers and
multi-track production. You have around $3,000 (US) to spend.
How would you spend it? What gear do you think would give you
the best bang for the buck? What DAW software package would you
buy? What mic? What mic processor/preamp, if any? Would you get
a mixer? What about soundproofing? Would you spend most your
budget on a loaded new computer, or upgrade an existing one?
What would be your minimum configuration -- how much RAM, disk
space, CPU speed? Please add any other thoughts you have on the
subject!
If you have a question for the RAP Network, email it to
jv@rapmag.com!
...And Make
It Real Creative
by Trent Rentsch
I’ve discovered that there’s a fine line between pity and
disgust. The spot was for a domestic car dealership. The owner
was speaking about “these tough economic times,” and he went on
to talk about his dealership’s plans for “economic recovery,”
and how the consumer could help them “stay in business” with his
“stimulus program.” Then he listed some “rock bottom prices” on
various vehicles. And during the entire commercial, he sounded
“very sincere.” Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Feature: Roll Them Bones
by Ed Thompson
Five years ago, when I was building a
recording studio in my basement, my Dad came over to lend his
considerable electrical talent in rewiring the room. Hey...
whenever you can get a union electrician with 35 years
experience to work for you for nothing, you take it. During the
installation of one line, Dad said to me, “Ed, this is not a
lesson. You just hold the tools.” It’s a funny line between him
and me. Dad knows I’m not real handy with the things that
separate humanity from most of the rest of the animal world. Ed
not work tools good.
Monday Morning Memo: But Isn’t Jewelry a Visual Product?
by Roy H. Williams
I'm sitting in the grand ballroom of the
Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York, surrounded by hundreds of
people in tuxedoes and evening gowns. So this is a five star
hotel, huh? Seven hundred dollars a night. Wow. The tuxes are
jewelers from across America, gathered to witness this year’s
induction of two luminaries into the Jewelers Hall of Fame. This
year’s inductees were selected from more than 30,000 jewelers.
The first honoree is Michael J. Kowalski, CEO of Tiffany. During
his acceptance speech, Kowalski mentioned that although his
company did more than 641 million dollars last quarter, “It’s
really not that difficult to take a 200 year-old legendary brand
to the next level. What I’ve done is nothing compared to my
fellow honoree. Woody Justice is a man who started with nothing
and built a jewelry store that’s known across America. And he
did it in just 25 years.”
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